Yours truly Harley Quinn
by michelle rachel king 1992
Summary: How did Harleen Quinzel become Harley Quinn?  Bit of explaining The Harley Quinn in this story is my version, not the traditional one. Sorry if you prefer that one :S like the old version is blonde, my version is brunette No copyright infrigement intende.


The packed claustrophobic bus pulled away from the stop slowly causing the bundled passengers to stumble attempting to steady their balance. Their desperate hands gripped the metal bars that supported the structure as it moved down the bumpy road.

Harleen Quinzel sighed flicking the strands of warm brown hair that fell across her face away from her dark brown eyes. The twenty year old spared a glance around at the people that pressed against her slim form, each of them looked equally fed up.

The young girl was on her way to the hospital that she worked at as a trainee mental health analyst. She always made a habit of studying people that she worked with causing her to be classed as some kind of freak to her fellow students.

Harleen's eyes gazed out of the window that stood before her, the sky was clear but the sun wasn't shining. The air was hazy and heavy on her lungs.

As the bus continued to follow its seemingly never ending route, the tired passengers slowly drained out of the small electric doors relived to be able to breath the air they craved.

Minutes dragged past the medical student as she listened to the music that buzzed through a teenagers headphones who sat in front of her until the creaky vehicle squealed to a stop outside the dull grey building Quinzel called work.

The young girl spared a flickering smile to the exhausted driver who nodded in response.

The long winding corridors of the Californian hospital where dreary and chilling to the bravest of people but the young brunette had grown up in an atmosphere where screams haunting her dreams was normal.

Since the student was a child she had suffered from nightmares, ghoulish images that stalked her unconscious mind. No one could explain where they came from and she would never say what they were.

The solid floor echoed repeating the clicks of Harleen's heels back to herself as she walked across the stone floor. The girl kept her eyes steady as she walked down the narrow space not letting her gaze stray to the doors that locked away the darkened minds that weren't safe to mix with the innocent who lived their normal lives.

The hospital wasn't a normal walk in, walk out, see a doctor for the longest time of five minutes hospital. This hospital was a one way ticket mental asylum.

The narrow path the girl walked down sectioned off most of the looked for criminals but to Harleen they where the minds she liked the most, the minds she was attracted to. The thoughts she wanted to examine.

Finally the girls light footsteps stopped as she reached the door of the office that she had spent numerous months working in.

Harleen's office was reasonably small compared to the other rooms in the large depressing building. In the centre of the room stood a dark oak wooden desk that matched the shelves which where squeezed into the back corner along with the statuesque chair that stuck out compared to the ratio of the four walls making who ever saw it wonder how it fitted through the door.

The only other piece of furniture was the item that cancelled out most of the available walking space in the room, a deep green psychiatrist chair. Harleen's eyes hovered over the dark green cushioned structure, the single piece of furniture knew more secrets that she did, it probably knew more than she would ever know.

The girl sunk into the odd chair behind the cluttered desk that she could never seem to organise. She ran a delicate hand over the paper letting her red painted nails slide across the multiple forms. Her dark brown eyes faded into the far away distance of the girls imagination as she focused on the deep green chair thinking about all the stories that had been spoken from past patients as they sat on the cushions. It was the kind of item she could only describe as wise.

"Hello?" The girl jumped as she heard the other female voice from outside her door. Confusion flooded through her as she scanned her surroundings slowly realising the dream she had slipped from was just that. Nothing about it was real.

_But she could still see his hazel eyes so clearly_.

She didn't know who they belonged to, she could tell they where dangerous yet breath taking at the same impossible time.

"Yes?" she replied weakly as another impatient knock hammered against the door.

She watched as the brass handle of the door turned before it slowly creaked open.

Alex Craig stood in the doorway with her trademark smile.

"Ms. Craig" Harleen stood from her chair quizzically greeting the woman who had help train her.

"Harlz" Craig used the girls nickname to address her, "How do you feel about Gotham city?" the enquiry made the girl frown, "Where?" she asked truthfully

"How do you feel about getting a new assignment?" the woman changed the conversation.

"What do you mean?" the previous confusion that lingered in the girls emotions bubbled to the surface of her words.

"Maybe a relocation?"

Harleen narrowed her eyes as she studied the blonde woman who's own blue elderly eyes where fixed on the desk that stood behind the girl as she ignored her question.

"To Gotham." she finished with a nervous smile twitching her lips as her colleague began to retort, "I'll come back later."

Harleen sighed as the woman slipped through the door.

"Great." The girl mumbled sinking back to her previous position, she had studied mental health to become a doctor, not to stay as a trainee for the rest of her working years moving from one hospital to another before she could even settle.

The girl pulled open the stiff draw that was the most organised place in her room, seeming as it only contained one item.

Harleen's delicate hands closed around the edges of the object revealing the laptop she searched for.

As the small computer buzzed to life her idle fingers tapped a rhythm on the smooth black surface.

The search the un expecting girl conducted only presented her with bad news.

Her warm brown eyes grew worried as she tried to make sense of the article the illuminated screen held for her.

The blocked words framed a picture, an image most sane people would ran from as the insane ran to it.

The man in the cage of letters stood leaning casually against a door, he wasn't a normal man and it wasn't a normal door. He stood inside Gotham bank, a place that was run by the mob, the picture was taken from their security camera only minutes before he robbed the place at gun point killing all the people that helped him.

A chill broke viciously down the girls spine as she noticed the mans dangerous black rimmed hazel eyes stabbing into her. They where familiar.

The picture could have been mistaken for a black and white photograph, even one that was only meant for Halloween but the haunting red smile drawn across his lips formed a sinister blood red grin.

Harleen had to know the criminals name.

The joker. She read, a wanted criminal of Gotham. Her lips silently shaped the words as the screen held back the man.

Green tinged hair flowed to purple collar of the suit he wore as it contrasted with the three colours of his face. Black, white, and red.

Hours slipped past the trainee as she delved deeper into the darker background of the character she needed to know more about. His mind was twisted in ways that she wanted to learn how they got so tangled and wanted to straighten them.

According to the jokers police reports he was a ghost, no one knew a single fact about him. They didn't even know what he looked lie under his face paint. The mask that covered him like he was a different person with and with out it.

The sun had slowly descended down the hazy orange sky letting the moon watch upon the darkened city illuminating the roof tops while casting shadows over the hidden corners.

A knock on Harleen's thick wooden door symbolized the return of the elderly doctor. "Come in" the girls voice chimed welcoming Craig into her shoe box office.

A roll of thunder rumbled from the sky as the thick entrance eased open, Craig's aged wise features where lit with patchy shadows as she stood bathed in the dingy hospitals artificial lights.

"Have you considered the movement?" The woman asked pretending to mask her inquiry with false carelessness.

"Why do you want me to move to Gotham?" Quinzel spoke the question she wasn't able to ask hours before.

"Gotham needs more staff, we hardly have any work around here." The woman paused taking a more effective route, "I thought you would like the adventure, maybe I was wrong?" The last part of her words was pronounced like a kind of monologue as she raised her eyebrows pondering the thoughts theatrically.

"And your offer has nothing to do with the joker?" Harleen watched the colour rinse away from the older woman's cheeks as lightening bolted across the room cutting through the tension that laid heavy in the still silent air.

"They need more staff, their over run with criminals…" She reasoned as the younger of the pair stood from her statuesque chair.

"You where going to send me to a city run by a man who puts fear into the mob."

"Oh," Craig sighed letting her eyes hover over the large green cushioned chair, "You've done a bit of research."

"A bit?" The girls soft features knitted into a frown, "Even if you attempt to try accessing any Gotham based site all you hear is of him. The man is everywhere!"

"I thought you found minds like that interesting? Why did you become a trainee? Why did you learn all of these things if you're not going to use them?"

Craig turned the subject to focus on the girl while pausing after stating the rhetorical questions, "This man will be your best challenge yet." Her voice softened leaving the brunette to consider the points.

"How long will I be there?" She inquired causing a glimmer of a smile to form in the depths of Craig's blue eyes, "As long as you want, it's a return ticket."

"You knew I would accept." The girl stated watching a guilty smile lurk across her superiors face, "Where will I stay?"

Sudden flashes of the unknown city played in her mind making her think of the villains who would learn what she was and what she did for a living. To them she wasn't trying to help. She was an annoying girl who only wished to poke around in their heads just to come to a conclusion that she thought they where losing their minds like jar of marbles.

"The Gotham city hotel. It's the safest place in Gotham, the mayor stays there, and the new D.A… The bat signal shines above it."

"The bat signal?" Harleen laughed humourlessly, "The place where a grown man runs around fighting "Criminals" dressed as a creature that lives in a cave? He is the worst case I've ever heard of, someone needs to examine him."

"Exactly." Craig fussed, "A way you can study two great minds. If I was younger and wasn't tied up over here I would jump at the opportunity." She nodded encouragingly.

"And if I want to come back I can?" Quinzel pursed her lips at the discussion which slowly drew to a close

"By all means." The older woman replied

"When do I leave?"

"Tonight." The girl frowned at the single worded answer, "They need people as soon as possible."

The two colleagues nodded with agreement to the deal.

The young girl tightened the thick black and red scarf around her neck as she shivered in the cold winter air watching her own breath form graceful soft drifting clouds in front of her.

Harleen Quinzel stood before the dreary building she had walked from for the last time in which she didn't know how long.

As the girl turned to the sky she heard another sound of life near her, an owl flew threw the darkened trees that stood yards away from her calling out in the eerie night.

The moon fought against the persistent grey clouds that challenged its strength by plunging the city into complete pitch black darkness. Street lamps flickered nosily buzzing above the freezing young girl as she shuffled her feet to keep warm.

Harleen held up a weak hand shielding her eyes from the two beams of blinding light that speed towards her from the darkness, the approaching object growled as it stopped beside her.

"Quinzel?" The gruff taxi driver stated through the open window of the yellow car

"Yes" she smiled stiffly feeling the frozen muscles of her cheeks numb as she climbed into the vehicle.

"Gotham city?" The balding man questioned

"What would a young girl like you want to go to a place like that for?" his weary eyes spared a glance to his passenger through the crooked rear view mirror catching the girls warm brown irises.

"I've got a new project." She nodded convincingly at the partial truth while the car took another turning in the already lengthy route.

It was three o'clock in the morning when Harleen finally managed to check into the Gotham hotel.

The twenty year old could tell the difference in the new city. No one was outside. There wasn't even a single teenager or adult wondering the streets.

Quinzel slipped from her jacket moving towards the large bay window that covered the south wall of her room. Her tired eyes searched the clouds watching flashing red lights of a passing airplane fly above her twinkling like Christmas lights.

Another light caught her attention, one that wasn't moving, one that could easily be seen as a scar on the city. A silhouette of a bat. That was the reason why no one went out at night.

The symbol loomed above the city warning the public of the dangers they faced if they stepped out of their front doors. Let alone opened their windows. The girl didn't understand how they could rely on a man they didn't fully understand.

She turned away from the window not noticing the hazel eyes that watched her intriguingly.

As the girl slept she dreamt of the man she had grown an interest in. She saw the man committing the crimes she had read, she saw the man who used the name of a playing card to terrorise the city.

_But what made him do those things?_

_What made him the joker?_

_Had something affected him?_

_Was he bullied?_

_Did he even have a reason?_

The young girls eyelids flickered as she tried to find answers to her own questions and reasons to her thoughts.

The usual shrill beeping of Harleen's alarm woke the sleeping girl who reached out a hand slapping the clock away letting it fall to the floor.

The previous dark night had taken its toll on the morning leaving the sun out of sight as the girl combed her wavy hair in the mirror.

Quinzel sighed as she glanced into the reflective surface, her empty eyes had been haunted once more by darkened dreams that lingered on her face.

"With a bit of twisting you could be Harley Quinn!" the girl was shoved away from the student who pushed her, it was the girl she would have once called her best friend.

"A clown. That's what you are." Another girl pushed her letting the nine year old Harleen stumble backwards in the orphanage room.

"HA! No wonder you want to be a metal doctor there the only people who would find you normal! FREAK!"

As the girl flinched back into the present she stepped away from the mirror collecting her bag with out sparing a second glance to it making her way to the door.

"Ah, Harleen Quinzel, mind if I call you Harley?" the small pixie like woman flicked her short black hair away from her wizened features as she addressed the tall brunette with icy blue eyes.

"If you must." The girl smiled tightly while the woman who introduced herself as Jayne led her down the asylums cool corridors.

"So you want to take in the joker?" Harleen questioned as their voices echoed down the empty space.

"Don't mention him around here. I mean yes, I want him off the streets but I don't want that _freak _in here."

Quinzel frowned at the comment feeling unintended anger bubble inside her, "He might have reasons."

"No. He's an outcast, a leper. You see, he will never _fit _with society. He's probably that crazy he doesn't need a reason."

Heat rushed to the girls face as she wished she could fight for the absent parties side but resisted.

"Whoever thinks part of him is decent are as mad as he is." The woman finished stopping outside a large metal door, "Our offices are here, the patients are sectioned to building B. This is your office." She stated walking further down the solid floor, "Have a good day."

The woman turned on her heel returning to what must have been her work place.

Harleen sighed as she glanced around her new office. It wasn't far from a cell, it made the girl feel like she was in a cage being observed by hidden spectators.

The paranoid girl sighed as she approached the small window, the room was even darker than the scarcely lit corridor. Thick metal bars lined the cat flap sized hole in her wall banning her from accessing the fresh air of the outside world.

Quinzel sunk into the uncomfortable looking metal framed chair, she wasn't surprised when she noticed it was bolted to the floor. As she let her eyes drift to each piece of furniture she took note of how they all matched, each item was secured to the ground including the large bare desk she placed herself behind.

"At least the draws aren't locked." She reasoned gaining access to the contents of the small metal draws pulling gently at there cold metal handles, the cold surface stung her warm finger tips.

The girl slipped her hand into the small space searching for anything in the darkness, seconds later her sensitive skin caught hold of a different texture.

Harleen examined the playing card she held between her fore finger and thumb, one side of the card was covered with a classic red pattern while the other side presented a picture that stopped her heart making it jump into her throat.

It was a joker card.

The grinning face stared at her from its own cage. The girl blinked examining the small object she held finally placing it on the smooth desk surface hoping it was a practical joke played on the new comer to the hospital.

But something made her feel like she really was being watched and the person who studied her was laughing.

The girls nerves where on edge as she retrieved her trust worthy laptop ready to conduct another piece of research.

The twenty year olds mind spun as she read the bold writing in front of her.

The card that was planted in her office was the jokers calling card. He knew she was coming before she did, he knew where her office was before she even saw it.

Harleen panicked.

_How could he get into the building?_

_Wasn't there high security?_

_Wouldn't they notice him?_

The girl read further into the article picking up each detail and highlighting them for further notes.

He left the DNA of the person he was going after, it was meant to be a message that got people thinking. He eventually found the person one way or another. He would get to her.

Gently Harleen picked up the meaningful lone card placing it in an envelope she found in her unfamiliar desk.

The name she wrote on the brown paper was one that she would only use in emergency, she had a favour to call in.

"Where are you going?" Jayne called the new girl from the open doorway of her office as she watched the silent trainee hurry out of the building gaining no reply in response.

As Harleen sat in the back seat of yet another yellow cab she gave the driver directions to the place she needed to be.

Two hours later the young trainee stepped from the car into the rainy town she was expecting.

The determined girl battled against the hailstones that fell from the blackened sky like golf balls until she reached the black door of the house she hadn't visited in years.

The paint that coated the door was uneven and chipped showing the uninterested public that passed it the mouldy texture that was once covered.

As the girl raised an unsure hand to the door she noticed the small building had been violated and broken into through the recent past.

The long window that used to stretch down the top of the entrance had been replaced by a thin black layer of bin bags secured by thick messy brown tape.

The lone security camera that used to film each visitor that entered the house and those who dwelled inside had been torn from its place leaving wires sprouting from its absence.

The ancient damaged door creaked open as Harleen's delicate fist made contact with its surface.

The man who stood behind the door fitted the atmosphere of the setting perfectly. His pure blue eyes stared at the girl emotionlessly until he recognised the medical student.

"Quinzel?" He frowned, his voice was as broken as the house he stood in.

"Good to see you John." She replied unsure if it was the right comment to make, "What happened here?"

"Same old same old. One or two people weren't happy with their products. I told them it took them places, I didn't say they where places they wanted to go."

The girl nodded understanding what the man was talking about, "I'm not sure I like the beard." She attempted weakly to lighten the conversation.

A slight blush past through the clean sections of the mans cheeks while he decided on a response, he chose the obvious question, "What brings you here?"

"Well John, I was wondering if I could have a favour." The girl began only for the run down male to interrupt her

"Anything for the beautiful Harleen Quinzel."

The trainee nodded awkwardly before proposing her thoughts, "I need some DNA run."

"Do you have a match to compare it to?"

"That's why I need the favour." She frowned softly.

"Sure." He nodded mirroring her previous awkwardness.

The nervous girl sat in wait as the untamed man from her past preformed the delicate forensic task.

Jonathan Crane had been a senior of Quinzel's in school only to take the path of studying medicine. The young man was found cheating on one rainy day leaving him expelled from the course he passionately loved.

At the time Harleen had a soft spot for him and pitied the ex student so she smuggled out medical supplies for him along with passwords to the Gotham hospital confidential files. The police believed thugs had taken all the items out of a spite.

"We have a profile." The man sighed jolting the girls thoughts back to the present. Harleen noticed the slight frown that played across the young mans eyes.

"What ?" She questioned wearily edging towards him to see what the stolen computer held for them that made him feel such strengths of disbelief.

"The profile belongs to a missing college student. It dates back to three years ago."

"How could he be the one if he's missing?"

"What?" Crane echoed her inquiry

"It doesn't matter." The girl excused herself distantly thanking him before dazedly walking from the musky building unaware that the one who watched her had followed the girl to the secret meeting fully acknowledged on what she was doing.

Harleen's eager finger tips tapped impatiently on the computer keys that stood in front of her. The shining surface brought more articles to confuse the girl as she sat in her office.

The twenty one year old student smiled at the medical trainee with warm hazel eyes. His curved lips dimpled lines of happiness into his smooth cheeks.

His face was familiar in so many unknown ways to the girl that it made her hope the villain wasn't going after him.

Light brownish blonde hair fell in messy waves to the base of his neck, the name that was printed above the young smiling face was Jack Napier.

The medical student read that the twenty one year old studied at Gotham university but fell into missing persons after he was viciously attacked. It was reported that he had apparently committed suicide.

A knock echoed through the mainly metallic room making the girl jump as she fell into the secretive hazel eyes.

"Harleen!" Jayne pushed the door open without waiting for a response, "Did you find out everything that you needed to?"

"Pardon?" the girl mumbled taken aback by the unexpected inquiry

"When you left, is everything sorted?" the wise woman squinted her intelligent eyes making the girl believe they where looking straight into her.

"There was nothing to sort." She replied feeling her heart thump solidly

"Okay." Jayne nodded slowly as if the girl wasn't making any sense or talking in a different language.

"I'll see you tomorrow, have a pleasant evening." her new superior left the room letting the metal door click behind her.

Quinzel frowned thinking nothing of the unusual encounter, she returned to studying the profile she had been reading before.

Jayne stood in the empty board room with her very own superior opposite her. The man who sat at the other end of the airy room was several years younger than the older woman.

He studied her with green eyes that pierced into her like a human lie detector. His name was Mecutio Roberts.

"What do you mean she has an interest in the joker?" His voice was laced with a light Italian accent coated with thick patronising layers.

"I mean when she left to do who knows what I read into the sites she has been visiting on her personal computer. She has been conducting a separate project in studying the criminal. It looks too obsessive." Jayne's voice sounded with retorting anger towards the intimidating man who had brought his way into the business with out a clue how the hospital was run.

"It could be exactly that." Mecutio answered, "An interest."

The older woman retired from the argument as she weakened from the emerald glare backing towards the door softly excusing herself.

"Oh, and Jayne…" Roberts' smooth voice made her freeze turning to him

"Keep an eye on her."

She nodded leaving her own secretive meeting.

Harleen let the room darken around her in her new apartment as she ran her fingers across the white blank envelope that had been placed under her door, butterflies flew around her stomach as she opened the package.

The message inside was scrawled messily across a scrap piece of paper, her lips formed around each menacingly heart stopping word.

"_Ms. Quinzel, I know a lot about you. I know who you are and what you do. You want to know me, you already know the things I do. _

_Ask yourself why._

_Why do you really want to know how minds tick?_

_Why do you really believe you are normal?_

_There is no normal._

_All good things eventually come to an end, one way, or another._

_This is a warning Harlz. _

_Don't try to see what makes me tick._

_Welcome to my city, maybe I can pay you a visit some time?_

_Love and kisses,_

_Joker…"_

Harleen's brown eyes focused on some of the sentences, he knew everything about her and was warning her, _why_?

The sender of the message claimed to know her but he didn't know that warning her only made her _need _to do what she _wanted _to do.

"Nothing." The girl mumbled searching for the whereabouts of the presumably dead student as she poured over the scattered articles she had collected.

Harleen stood retired from her rewardless search.

Quinzel's tired brown eyes cast one last weary glance at the pictures that collaged together.

Dozens of hazel eyes stared back at her, some expressions where of friendliness, other where of menace that oozed from the images.

Her heart thumped as her muscles tensed paralysing the medical student where she stood staring into the familiar eyes.

They blended too well.

The girl ran back to the pictures grabbing them with her frantic fingers.

She held them next to each other, the same hazel eyes studied her from each picture.

Jack Napier was the joker.

The girl sat for hours in her darkened room staring at the pictures. It was him, the missing student was far from dead.

He was a good student but his lack of seriousness caused him the ultimate cost.

While she slept she dreamt of twisted nightmares.

At one point she stood in a pitch black alleyway surrounded by clowns, they laughed and taunted her. On the floor laid the young Jack Napier, he was barely conscious curled in on himself as he was frozen with agony.

"Morning Jayne." Harleen smiled as she addressed the Dark haired woman that stood outside her office skipping past her.

"Harleen, I was wondering if I could have a word," Her cautious blue eyes flickered away from the girls quizzical expression

"Of course." Quinzel nodded opening the heavy door.

"What did you want to me talk about?" She enquired letting her eyes scan for anything that didn't belong, she breathed lightly as she noted no mysterious packages or envelops.

"The joker." The girl froze as she caught sight of the only thing that didn't match her office furniture, a playing card, one that matched the one she kept in her purse identically.

Quinzel's uneven heels clicked towards the desk that held the joker card as her forehead knitted into a confused frown.

"Well?" Jayne quizzed making it obvious she knew of the item, "What's it doing here?"

"I..I, don't know" The girl stuttered

"Why did someone leave you a joker card?"

"I don't kn…"

"Why have you been researching him?" The woman dug deeper making the girl fluster.

"I just wanted to know more about Gotham.." She reasoned as heat flooded to her nervous cheeks

"_Why _didn't you ask me? I've been here for my whole career."

Harleen nodded in apology as Jayne continued

"_Why _just him? _Why _would you want to research on a _freak _like him?" venom leaked into her words as anger replaced all the other feelings heating the girls blood until it burnt in her veins.

"_WHY _is everything WHY? .._why _do you have to ask all these _questions_?" Anger seeped into Harleen's voice, "As for calling him a _freak_.. There is _NO _normal."

A smile as twisted as Harleen's dream curled the edge of Jayne's lips.

"He is a human. He had a rough past."

"What do you mean?" The short woman pressured.

"Nothing." The girl replied ending the conversation.

"I suggest you don't look at his character any longer." Her superior cautioned

"He corrupts minds."

Quinzel listened to her retreating footsteps fall down the spacious corridor.

As the twenty year old heard the metal doors lock click shut she turned to the card that was still clasp in her clenched hand.

Wiry letters had been scrawled across the mocking face of the black and white clown.

The two words spelt a name. One that taunted her younger years. Harley Quinn.

Laughter ripped through the stressed girls throat as she reread the scrawled script.

Her body jerked as she rocked with rolling laughter, slowly the hysterical sound quietened leaving her breathlessly laughing unable to stop while tears rolled from her eyes. She threw the card in the air letting it flutter to the ground.

Jayne ran through the corridors until she reached the room she targeted. The maniacal laughter that had travelled down the corridor and through the buildings deserted walls had died down causing the occupants to search the structure for the culprit.

The determined woman shoved the keys into the large metal lock frantically.

Jayne stepped away as she saw the state her colleagues office was in.

Doctor Harleen Quinzel's room had been vandalized to the fullest possible amount. The shelves that stood orderly against the wall had been shaken, their contents was scattered across the floor leaving records and articles coating the floor creating a sea of words.

Jayne flinched back as she saw the deadly eyes staring at her through black rims.

The eyes belonged to a young man, black circles had been drawn over his once happy eyes, a red line had been scrawled across his once warm smile turning it into a well known sinister grin.

Dozens of eyes stabbed into her from the pictures in the sea of papers, oceans of deep hazel eyes watched her with hidden amusement.

Hundreds of Jack Napier's smiled at her with innocent eyes, the other eyes belonged to the joker. On top of them laid a single calling card.

Two guards had run to the woman's side, their guns where held tightly as their knuckles clamped them in place anticipating any action that might have unfolded.

"Quinzel has gone." The woman stated as if declaring a new rule. Her steady blue eyes focused on the blood red paint that dripped from the wall reading the running words. "Harley Quinn is here."

The fragile girl slept curled in on herself as she dreamt again of unknown dreams.

This time she was in a hospital, one she had been to many times only now she was in the white room with cushioned walls and barred doors.

She laughed to herself of an unsaid joke, her arms where bound behind her body but she didn't care. It didn't ruin her mood.

The white walls began to fade, furniture grew like trees from the floor filling the empty spaces as the twenty year olds warm brown eyes watched each piece magically appear.

The jacket fell from her slim form as she stood in the clean room, the new place was still a hospital but it wasn't one she had ever been in.

A young man was lying across the bed, images flashed through the girls mind telling her his unknown story as she looked at the grisly gashes that slashed his cheeks.

The boys face had been carved on Halloween, he had been attacked by clowns. A group of circus freaks had left him in an alleyway.

A permanent smile beamed at her as she leant over his bed, "J…" She breathed pressing her blood red lips to his forehead.

The next place the girls unconscious mind visited was one she had gone back to many times before. An image of the orphanage she stayed at when her parents went travelling painted itself in her mind.

The twelve year old Harleen Quinzel ran across the wooden floor away from the bullies that hunted her. She flinched as she battled her way down the never ending staircase. Her memory twisted into another one where she sat in a hospital very much like the setting her previous dream was of.

The fourteen year old Quinzel had been found after running away from her dorm room. She was suffering from the effects of a bitter night as the nurses cared for her.

Years flew past blurring images of the girls life until her eyes adjusted. Harleen found herself only eleven months from where she was now.

This time Quinzel was in hospital for taking an overdose. She had tried to end her life after a fellow trainee shared some harsh words with her.

The girl had been found and taken into hospital.

Since that day Harleen Quinzel had turned her life around. She had studied and learnt how to control all the little emotions that fought inside her but Jayne's piercing blue eyes belittled her.

Warm hazel eyes appeared in front of hers, they were a good six inches above hers. A tear rolled down her cheek as she felt the safety the man provided flow through her. The black rimmed eyes held a mixture of emotions, she could see the anger he held against the people who hurt her. To the average person they would only see danger and fire but Harleen saw a broken student just like her. He only needed company.

The dreamy figure held out a purple leather clad hand encouraging her to except the gesture.

Electricity bolted through the girls hand as his closed around it.

The mysterious man lead her into the darkened areas of the world she didn't know existed.

The dark haired female ended her hast phone call as she informed as many people she could of the missing girl.

No one could do anything until the girl had been missing for at least forty eight hours.

"SHE COULD BE DEAD!" the woman frantically made up an excuse for her interest she showed.

"She is an adult. There is a possibility she went of her own accord" the monotone police officer replied.

Worry filled the woman's thoughts as poisonous hazel eyes haunted them turning them into blackened negativity. She knew what the doctor had become, she just didn't think it would happen so quickly.

Jayne and Mecutio grew further on edge with every minute that past them waiting for a murderous head line to interrupt the normal day that past them.

Life carried on through the day after Quinzel's disappearance meaning nothing to the general public as they lived their clueless normal lives.

As Jayne sat in her office she listened to the musical light footsteps that sounded down the corridor.

The sun had sunk in the sky marking the end of the day. Stars twinkled above the citizens without the moon which was kept hidden from the woman's sight.

The footsteps stopped outside her closed metallic door, the woman frowned as she heard the soft scratching sound beneath her rooms the entrance. As curiosity filled her she stood. The noise had stopped.

A small red envelop had been slid under her door, even more confusion bubbled inside Jayne as she knelt towards the blood red packet.

As the woman twirled that envelop in her delicate fingers she read the flowing black writing that covered the front side.

Jayne's lips mouthed the words as the frown that knitted her eyebrows creased into her skin aging her with wisdom full curiosity. The woman slid her fingers under the closed flap of the envelop searching for its contents. The thin card was hardly noticeable in the weightless delivery.

The thin object was one that made her heart thump deeply before she even looked at it.

In Jayne's shaking hand was a playing card, an eerie joker stood on the delicate design caught in the middle of laughter.

The woman dropped the card like it was a venomous snake striking at her. The tips of her fingers froze with fear as she fought with the lock on her door calling out for any one to help her.

The corridors where empty as her frantic yells echoed down them returning back to her with a sadistic twist. The woman bolted to the abandoned reception as she heard the blood curdling laugh bounce off the walls towards her fleeing form.

Jayne's footfalls grew faster as her breath grew laboured showing the woman's fight to escape from her invisible stalker that hunted her through her own territory.

The older woman burst through the grand entrance of the asylums office building ignoring section B as the freezing air stung her face, she continued to run.

The laughter had stopped. Only trances of its horrific nature played back in her mind.

Jayne stood outside Gotham's new police station, a shiver broke down her tense spine as she remembered the last prison and the villain who destroyed it by burning the structure to the ground.

James Gordon, the current commissioner held the door open for the shaken woman with worry burning his experienced eyes.

"The joker is at Arkham Asylum." She stated to the mans disbelief.

"That's impossible." He replied brushing off the idea.

"How would you explain the mysterious unknown joker cards placed in the building or the laugh I escaped from?"

"That's not his style…" The commissioner considered quietly to himself

"I don't care what you think he style may or may not be, you need to catch him!" she screamed letting her coiled emotions flow freely into her speech

"We'll search the place." Before Jayne could open her mouth to retort he pulled the phone from his belt calling in the emergency search.

The heavy metal battering ram slammed into the hospitals front entrance letting the swarm of bullet proof police swat members dive into the multiple rooms.

"I wouldn't go in there." Jayne cautioned as Gordon peered through the metal bars of a secured metal door.

"Why not?" he asked frowning lightly

"Because I don't want it to be true." She replied as he pushed the door open.

Once again the older woman found herself in the room with hazel eyes.

"Why didn't you say anything before?" The commissioner questioned

"Was this why you insisted we searched for her?"

All the woman could do was nod as her shaking voice was too weak for talking let alone reasoning for the young female student.

"Who else knew?" the man asked a different question hoping for a warmer lead

"My boss, Mecutio Roberts." she answered feeling another wave of panic pass through her as she was asked where he was.

"The, building was empty..." Jayne's dull voice breathed as her tearful eyes studied the scene.

Mecutio Roberts sat with his back straight against his chair. His eyes where closed as if in a peaceful sleep, his head leaned on his shoulder as he dreamt.

The reason why Jayne's eyes watered was at the sight of the black handled dagger that stuck from his chest pinning his body onto the great cushioned chair.

"This wasn't the joker." Gordon repeated, "This was Harley Quinn"

News flashes flickered lively on each television set in every house of Gotham city. Images flashed on the illuminated screens showing there audiences pictures of the happy medical student.

The news that accompanied her smiling pictures wasn't the serious tones of missing persons reporting the girls disappearance.

The monotone male voice was stating the need for the new deadly villain to be found.

The dark haired woman stood in the empty house, she watched from the window as her apartment was taken in as a police raid. The girls brown eyes studied the officers who routed through her belongings searching every corner of her temporary home. She didn't even know half the places they searched existed.

Her emotionless eyes stared at the person who made her blood boil. Jayne stood weakly in the artificially lit doorway leaning against the frame with permanent panic visible from streets away.

The girls eyes turned to the misted mirror that she studied with eagle like focused eyes.

Her dark brown hair had been dyed pitch black, the same colour that her beloved eyes where rimmed with. The waves that used to fall over her shoulders no longer existed as the straight panes of silky hair flowed without a kink in sight.

The twenty year olds youthful looks where paled with white powder giving her an air of the undead.

The warm eyes that welcomed strangers with comforting glances where framed with thick long black lashes that lengthened dramatically at the tips of her eyes fluttering as she blinked.

A tear of what looks like diamonds shone from the girls right eye giving the appearance of her poor soul mourning the loss of the girl she used to be.

Her normal rosy pink lips had been darkened with black, the centre of her bottom lip had a line of red running down it giving her a doll like appearance.

The dolls slim figure was fitted with a black and red gymnastic suit changing her appearance to be a jester. The clown she was always made out to be.

A smile played across the girls lips as she thought of the man she would work beside although she hadn't met him yet, "We'll fit together like a puzzle," She chimed in a faded tune she remembered from her past life, dim images of her listening to music on a bus floated in her mind. She glanced down at the photograph she held, "I'm your missing piece."

The jokers dangerous eyes stared at from the shiny paper.

"Where so you think the girl will be?" Gordon asked the nervous woman

"I don't know" She replied remembering the sentence the innocent trainee had used to answer her with only causing the man to ask more questions, just like she has done.

"When did she first hear of the joker?"

"When she came here. I asked her about her interest, she said she only wanted to know more about Gotham"

The commissioner glanced down at the two images that laid on his desk. One was of Jack Napier, the other was of the criminal he had turned into. The computer that buzzed lightly in-between them held a face comparison confirming Napier really was the joker. The small item laid at the side of his table in a plastic wallet was the playing card found in the trainee's vandalised office, the young girls DNA had been discovered on it.

"We searched her apartment." Gordon continued, "We need to find a place she could be staying, somewhere relative to the joker."

"Did he have a house? A family home? Napier had lived with his uncle who died. The house might still be vacant." The silent police man who stood in the doorway suggested adding his piece of information.

"We have to pull up records. We should pay a trip to the house as a precaution."

The groups discussion ended as his sentence did, the sound that followed came from nearing footsteps.

"Mr. Gordon." a young red headed receptionist poked her head through the door making sure she wasn't interrupting

"Yes Kate?" his tired eyes spared a glance up to her as she walked forward holding a small red box in her hands, it was tied together with a large black bow.

"This was just delivered."

Panic hit the mans thoughts full force as he gently took the anonymous package away from the girl, "Who delivered it?"

"Just a normal man in a post van." she replied truthfully turning to leave.

"Did he leave a message?" The commissioner excused.

"No he just gave the box." She replied waiting to be dismissed.

As Kate left the group the trio where focused on the gift they had received.

The commissioner placed the box on the desk cautioning the people around him as he pulled the bow between his forefinger and thumb. The thin black material fell away as he gripped the lid lightly.

The older woman stood with the police officer as he stepped forward trying to help the commissioner who handled the box with shaking hands trying not to drop its contents.

Jayne glanced inside the blood red container quizzically looking inside, suddenly her mind jolted to what the object was.

"Is that a _detonator_?" she breathed trying to stay calm as her mind raced.

"There's a note." the young police man reached eagerly into the box only to withdraw his hand as if the red box was burning fire.

The commissioner plucked the small white piece of paper reading the delicately formed script in his nervous voice.

"_Did you think I was dead? Just like you thought he was?_

_Well I'm alive so is my clown prince._

_Here's your copy of the key. I have mine. You have until sunrise before the city sees the biggest set of fire works it ever will live to see._

_Tick Tock._

_Love _

_H."_

The mans unsteady eyes reread the writing over and over until realising the message wouldn't change and neither would the meaning.

"Where is she going to strike?" the police officer inquired as his eyes paled from the threatening message.

"Tick Tock." Jayne mumbled gaining the commissioners quizzical eyes, "A clock where everyone could see it. Saying the detonator is a key, the key to the city. The city hall.""That's impossible." The officer shrugged her thoughts away.

"It's possible." Gordon contradicted "The joker tried to, well, he succeeded in blowing up the university from that place. Along with my old police station. She could try blow up that building. To get his attention."

"Where would she blow it up from?" the officer frowned, "She can't be staying in the building while it blows up."

"The family home?" Jayne returned to the previous topic as the officer walked to the computer that still held the vital face comparison running a new search.

"His uncles house over looks the hall. She would be able to watch the fireworks."

The young girl giggled to herself as she picked up the detonator she had made.

She glanced at the towered building watching the historical clock tick the seconds by waiting for the exact moment when she would press the black deadly button that would light it like a candle.

Harley Quinn sat at the window sill of Jack Napier's old family home. She felt like it was where she belonged.

The girl jumped back as she saw the red laser shine against the window she was poised by losing her balance.

The on edge jester span around frantically to see the three figures in the doorway, her black lips stretched into a maniacal grin, one that would haunt the person she focused on.

Jayne stepped through the doorway freezing as she saw the small object in the girls hand, her normally warm eyes where an unnatural icy cold.

Outside the tense house the sky was brightening, the sun was creeping out of the darkness fighting against the clouds.

"NO!" the jester exclaimed, "J was meant to see this!"

"Harleen.." the dark haired woman held out a hand showing she wasn't a threat moving towards the ex trainee.

"HARLEEN ISN'T HERE ANYMORE!" the blue eyes that studied the young girl softened as they watched her struggle to keep sanity. Jayne stopped her advance waiting for her accomplices to help the situation.

"Harley." Gordon made a smile flicker in her half hidden features, "Put the detonator down." All traces of happiness fell from her face.

"This?" She twirled the remote like item around her fingers, her thumb hovered over the button making the police officer jump forward.

"Why would I want to do that?" Her voice was sweet and child like, she looked almost innocent apart from the obvious murderous thoughts that entertained her mind.

"We can sort this out" Gordon negotiated, he stopped unconsciously edging to her when he noticed the annoyance in her eyes.

"Can we?" Rich sarcasm coated her voice.

"You killed Mecutio.." He replied, "We can help sort something out."

"You mean arrest me and if I act like a good little prisoner you'll shorten my time." She stated as if it was a punch line to a bad joke

"No, we need to run a couple tests on you." his voice was soft.

"I'm not crazy." The girl emphasised on her words casting an angry glare to the detonator she held, the police officer who had backed down sprung back to action.

"NO!" Gordon tried to call the man off as he bundled the girl. The commissioner watched as they control fell to the floor, the black button slammed against the stone ground making the group flinch back.

As the confused man let go of the criminal he held onto her shaking arm as she rocked.

The sound that came from her wasn't sobbing or screaming, she was laughing. The crystal tear that ran from her eye glimmered in the light of the rising sun.

"Do, … you, really think.." She fought against the unstoppable laughs that travelled through her, "I, I would,.. Make it that easy.." Her chest erupted into another vicious fit.

The commissioner frowned signalling for the police officer to leave her as he pulled the girl up by her thin shoulders.

"What do you mean?" a worried frown aged his face

"Why ask so many _questions_?" The girl laughed she saw anger seethe in his eyes.

"The detonators never worked commissioner." Her black lips curled around the word while stating the fact, she spoke to him like she was addressing a child.

"The bomb was on timer." The girl doubled over laughing as the two other people pushed past her rushing to the window.

"You really should have brought back up." Her laughter was drowned out by the earth rattling explosion.

The people that dwelled in Gotham ran from their houses to watch as their hall lit up the morning filling the air with a heavy smoke, one that drowned the city in even more darkness than its permanent clouds ever managed.

Bursts of colour sizzled in the air creating a mystical image above the building as fireworks blocked out the bright bat shaped signal that once loomed before it.

The east side of the building that had stood for uncountable years had caved in on itself under the impact, the tower which held the giant clock remained intact as ashes flew around it.

Fire engines raced through the packed streets trying to save as much as they could from the landmark, police cautioned citizens to back away in case another explosion ripped through its blazing shell.

The tense room that the four people stood in was soon packed with heavily armed police officers, one of which gripped the hysterically laughing girl who was too preoccupied to fight for freedom.

"What can I say?" The jester called back into the room as she was dragged away, "I know how to ENTERTAIN!"

The grand clock of Gotham battled with the shrieking sirens marking six o'clock of the dreaded morning.

"Watch the hair!" The girl sighed as she was pulled by her cuffed hands out of the police car.

"Home sweet home." Her smooth voice echoed down the steely corridors gaining no reply, her emotionless eyes ignored the vandalised office as she was walked past it.

No feelings radiated from the girl as her arms where bound behind her back while the metal door clicked behind her leaving the villain left alone in the white room with padded walls.

The aftermath from the morning left the rest of the day for Gotham to recover. Two deaths had been reported from the caved in side of the city hall but for the first time in years the glorious sun beat its ever lasting feud with the thick blanket of smothering clouds.

Harley Quinn sat in her cell singing the song that had been stuck in her head since the day she left for the haunted city.

She had sat still for hours leaning against one of the walls with closed eyes.

Her long black lashed eyes flickered open as she heard the sound she could only dream of. She jolted up as her mind registered it to be real.

Uneven male laughter drifted through the door of her cell. The jester could imagine the man who had such a humourless laugh. His green tinged hair would frame his dangerous face with hazel eyes that would look at her through black rims, a blood red smile would be stretched across his face hiding the young man he once was. The girl ran to her door trying to get a glimpse of her visitor.

The joker had come for her.


End file.
